The History of the City
The city was established when the Dor clans dominated the people of the city named as “Mariandyn” in BC 550.
In the middle of the VI century BC (560), the Megara and Boiotia people established a strong Greek colony in the city and the city was named as Ereğli Herakleia Pontika.
The origin of the city’s archaic name is based on Herakles, the legendary hero of Greek mythology. With time, the Greek name Herakles was changed to “Ereğli” among the people. The city, which was dominated by the Bithynia Kingdom in the 2nd century BC, was occupied by the Romans in the 1st century BC. Then, the city was dominated by the Byzantine, Genoese and Ottoman Empires, and named as “Bender-i Ereğli” in the Ottoman period. Ereğli carried great importance strategically during the Liberation War with its rich coal beds and harbour. The city, which was occupied by France during national defence, got free from French occupation on June 18th, 1920.
The History of the Halil Pasha Maison
The building, which has a ground floor and three other floors and a plan for a middle hall, was built of brick with the efforts of Halil Pasha Karamahmutoğlu, one of the notables of the city, at the end of the 19th century, and was made interesting with the use of archaic spoly materials. The building, which was used as a secondary school and the Girl’s Professional School for some period, was allocated to the Ministry of Culture in 1988, and its restoration that began in 1989 was completed in March 1998.
The Directorate of Ereğli Museum, which had been carrying out its activities in the Atatürk Culture Centre since September 1988, was moved to the Halil Pasha Maison, of which restoration was completed, on March, 17th, 1998.
The ground floor of the building, of which exhibition – arrangement works were completed, is used as an administrative section. Among the works exhibited in the first floor of the building, there are marble grave stelae, a cooked soil amphora, marble column heads with figures, glass vessels and Jewellery, various metal works and vessels made of cooked soil, oil – lamps, weaving and archaeological works composed with figurines all reflecting the Greek, Rome and Byzantine periods and found in Ereğli and its environs, and works composed with the collections of the Lydia, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Abbasi, Emevi, Sasani, Artuklu, Seljuk and Ottoman coins. Various men’s and women’s clothes, the “Elpek” tissue and a thread, which is a weaving specific to the region, weaving tools, some weaving types such as handkerchiefs, wrapping cloths, covers, weapons, Jewellery, stamps, materials related with tobacco, rosaries, clocks, kitchen tools, measuring and weighing tools and regional ethnographic works composed of script works are all being exhibited on the second floor. The third floor was arranged as a museum – house furnished in accordance with its period. Tombs, column heads, column bases, columns, a stone with an inscription, architectural parts and stone works composed of a mausoleum which all belong to various periods are being exhibited in the garden of the museum.
